Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

William Parsons:
 
1.  You wrote:  “Although the form "Ra" is commonly used in English for the 
Egyptian sun god, this transcription is based on a earlier misunderstanding 
of the Egyptian writing system, in which the name is written in a way 
corresponding to   /R( in Hebrew.  The second letter corresponds to Hebrew 
`ayin and is definitely consonantal in Egyptian, but was earlier thought to 
represent a long "a".  The spelling "Re" is better in that it uses the Coptic 
vocalization, but even this is far from how the name was pronounced in much 
earlier times, such as that of Abraham.  We happen to have a cuneiform 
transcription of a name containing r` from the Amarna period that indicates 
the vocalization of the name at that time was ri`a, so I can't see how this 
fits particularly well with the [ra] in "Abraham".”
 
I agree with everything you say except your conclusion.  We know that Ra or 
Re or r‘ or ri‘a is spelled R( in full form in the Patriarchal narratives, 
because the name of Joseph’s Egyptian priestly father-in-law ends in P-R(, 
representing pa-Ra, and meaning “T-h-e Ra”.  Genesis 41: 45.  But what would 
be the shortened form of R(?  Certainly it would be expected to be R, which 
we see in both the names “Abraham” and “Sarah”:  )B-R-HM and %-R-H.
 
2.  You wrote:  “On another note, I don't see that "Ra" was ever used as a 
generic term for God in Egypt.  As far as I can see, it always referred to a 
specific deity (although there could be identification with other, specific, 
deities, such as Ammon).”
 
Wouldn’t you agree that the Egyptian pharaonic title sa-ra was the best-known 
phrase in the ancient world?  Everyone knew that phrase, and many cultures 
had somewhat similar phrases, as I indicated in my prior post.  Most pharaohs 
didn’t care much about a sun-god, but they all proudly bore the title sa-ra.  
For example, Amen is totally unlike Ra the sun-god, yet the Amen-loving 
pharaohs of the early 18th Dynasty all proudly bore the title sa-ra [not 
sa-Amen].  Here’s a standard explanation of pharaonic titles:  “royal 
titulary.  Classic sequence of names and titles held by each of the pharaohs 
consisting of five names (the so-called ‘five-fold titulary’), which was not 
fully established until the Middle Kingdom.  It consisted of the Horus name, 
the Golden Horus name, the Two Ladies name (nebty), the birth name (nomen;  
sa-Ra) and the throne name (prenomen;  nesu-bit).”  Beatrix Midant-Reynes, 
“The Prehistory of Egypt from the First Egyptians to the First Pharaohs” 
(2000), at p. 273.  The point is that since  e-v-e-r-y  pharaoh had a sa-Ra 
title, but few pharaohs honored the sun-god Ra in particular [with Amen often 
being by far the most popular Egyptian god in the 18th Dynasty], in my view 
the grand pharaonic title sa-Ra effectively honored Deity, not just the 
sun-god.

It seems to me that an early Hebrew author could (i) use R as a shortened 
form of R(, and (ii) have the intended meaning of Deity, not focusing on a 
particular Egyptian sun-god.  That’s my theory of the case.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois